India’s space program will use a female android named Vyommitra to test the crew module ahead of its first crewed flight. Why did the robot have to be female? And where are the real women astronauts?
Month: February 2020
Welcome to Wednesday, where Myanmar police side with protesters, the Senate votes to continue Trump’s trial and Europe’s oldest person survives COVID. We also look at the reasons why the “capital of Canadian humor” isn’t laughing so much lately. • COVID-19 latest: Ghana parliament shuts down over outbreak that leaves 17 MPs and 151 support […]
The country’s food and drug administration should be careful about rubber stamping medical products and procedures just because they’re shiny and new.
Welcome to Tuesday, where Myanmar’s junta hints at new elections, Trump’s impeachment trial (part II) gets started, and Motown loses a star. Meanwhile Bogota-based daily El Espectador explains how Pablo Escobar’s hippos have sparked an ecological debate in Colombia. • COVID-19 latest: Iran begins using Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine as part of the vaccination campaign, […]
Welcome to Monday, where South Africa halts AstraZeneca vaccine after poor results on local variant, 180 are feared dead in India glacier collapse, and Tom Brady makes Super Bowl history. We also look at the unlikely feud involving Indian farmers, top cricket stars — and Rihanna. • COVID-19 latest: South Africa halts use of AstraZeneca […]
MOSCOW — Nowadays, if you want to hear the Russian language spoken properly in Moscow, you have to go to an upscale restaurant. Anything less posh is occupied by people coming from Central Asia, any one of the ‘stan republics lying between the titans: Russia and China. But beyond the Ural Mountains, they say, it […]
President Trump’s scuppered impeachment may provide a cue to regional leaders working to undermine their own democracies.
A ‘plastic surgery style’ is a new part of the culture exploding on social media.
Categories
Not Quite Groundhog Day
I had to be quick to snap a photo of this little fellow in Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies, before it dashed back into its burrow. I’d always assumed it was a groundhog, like those I’m used to seeing in the French Alps. But looking at it now, I’m quite sure it’s a […]
The virus could have been better contained if China had not tried to hush it up at the start. Autocracy comes at a price.
Cash use is declining, but don’t expect it to disappear. Still, there is another popular payment method that could in fact go the way of the dodo, a Deutsche Bank strategist argues.
A closer look at the iconic photo of the three Allied leaders gathered to bring an end to World War II, and shape the map of the coming Cold War.
Welcome to Friday, where Myanmar trouble deepens, Navalny’s doctor dies and $60 million in Bitcoin is lost behind a password. We also look at one country trying to figure out where it fits in with the global rush to do business with China. • COVID-19 latest: AstraZeneca applies for approval of its COVID-19 vaccine in […]
It’s now been a century since the brilliant, Italian-born artist passed away in Paris, France at just 36 years of age.
The epidemic unnerving the world originated in the Wuhan shellfish market, where other local delicacies are sold. But does that matter?
Welcome to Thursday, where the UK has begun a trial of mixing vaccines, Facebook is blocked in Myanmar and German singles try to find love in the local supermarket. We also hear from a Belgian bioengineer working against the tech consensus of “smart cities.” • COVID-19 latest: Germany flies in doctors, ventilators, and beds to […]
CHENNAI — Twenty-six-year-old Arivu’s small room, on the fourth-floor terrace of an apartment in suburban Chennai, is as lively as his music. It is in this room that Arivu shot his now iconic rap song “Sanda seivom”, which effortlessly rips the Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens apart. Pictures of Ambedkar and Buddha are looking over him and an ektara (the instrument) standing tall. “It was a gift from the Tata Institute for Social Sciences when I recently visited them,” Arivu says. “I intend to learn to play it and even use it in my rap.” A single […]
Welcome to Wednesday, where Aung San Suu Kyi is charged and Alexei Navalny is sentenced. Also Jeff Bezos announces he will step down as Amazon CEO, in utero music is a thing and Mada Masr probes into the politics of hair in Egyptian schools. • COVID-19 latest: In search of the origins of COVID, a […]
There’s a case to be made that at least some of what the country owes is ‘odious’ and therefore illegitimate.
Welcome to Tuesday, where global calls are issued for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, Navalny shows up in court and there’s real-life drama at the French opera. Le Monde also goes to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown to report on the disillusions, two years into his term. • COVID-19 latest: Japan set to […]
Welcome to Monday, where the army seizes power in Myanmar coup, weekend protests rock Russia and it’s revealed that Messi scored really big in Barcelona. We also take a look at Big Brother in China, and how citizens have had enough of the country’s ubiquitous surveillance system. The fragility of American democracy is nothing new […]